• The Collaborators by Katrina Tuvera-
• The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
• Life-times of becoming human by Neferti Tadiar-
• Formations by Carissa Pobre-
• Dare to lead by by Brene Brown
• Philippine Politics and the Marcos Technocrats by Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem

• January 25 - Virginia Woolf's birthday
• August 8 - Midnight appointee anniversary in the bureaucracy
• October 16 - The day I visited Rachel Ruysch in Den Haag
• November 27 - Anniversary with K

Of the moment's:

• Woke up this morning to cry happy tears at my realization on the work year-end planning/dive trip to Anilao
  • That is, the question I ask myself in government work is: What is worth protecting?
  • History, memory, protected areas, people as fragile beings, people as fierce beings, to find ways to exist in the world that wasn't built for us, to ease suffering when possible, to suffer for something, the dream of radical equality, a silent spring
• Handled the admin work of life: bills, computations, PRs for one's performance as an advocate
• Posted picture of the flowers I gave Kevin for our 7th anniversary
• Brunch with Mama and talking to her like ...

• Agency
  • "...the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices."
  • "My first act of free will will be to believe in free will."
  • "We claim our agency, despite trauma."
• Commitment
  • "...the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc."
  • "...an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action."
  • "Commitment is what / Transforms the promise into reality. / It is the words that speak / Boldly of your intentions. / And the actions which speak / Louder than the words. / It is making the time / When there is none. / Coming through time / After time after time, / Year after year afte...

• Starting my thesis on climate change was prescient. I am in a better position than most to recommend policies and actions which will help towards a "new normal" / accessing climate finance.
• Dorm life experience during the pandemic remains relevant. We all need that culture of care to survive, rewrite the norms which we find ourselves part of.
• Self-knowledge and self-compassion are necessary for self-preservation.
• Friendship is the gift.
• Tenderness / la tendresse: "Without tenderness, we are all in hell." (Adrienne Rich)

Happy one year anniversary to me. I'm still so glad I traveled when I did because wow government return service when your agency is at the center of the administration's infrastructure program is a circle of hell. Half-way done with my bond in go...

• "The law will not protect you, it's people who do." Cultivate relationships. Then and now be a good teammate.
• Competence is a performance. Wear lipstick to big meetings. Do your homework.
• Don't buy into the numbers game of government (salary grades, attendance to foreign trainings). This level of competition is absurd and small-minded. It's scarcity politics.
• Everything is political, but you choose your own politics. What issues you care for, will fight for. Know your interests when you walk into a room.
• Keep in mind what things you can change now and not yet. Timing matters. Identify your reform moments.
• In the bureaucracy, knowledge is power. Again, do your homework.
• Be always polite, generous with credit, fair. But understand also the limits of on...

• Give yourself permission to care for yourself like you care for a friend. With empathy, compassion, and patience.
• You have a deep sense of responsibility for other people. This will exhaust you and eat you up, so boundaries and travel is a must to remind you that no matter how embodied you feel in your situation, these are all temporary. Travel is a death rehearsal. You are insignificant in the scale of the world.
• By hook or by crook, take vacations to do nothing. "--to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream."
• Be selfish and schedule a vacation earlier than midyear. You usually have a mini or major burn out by June.
• On vacations, play Nina Simone. I wish I ...

• Where the WSAP Conference will be
• Marine protected areas
• Lake Sebu
• Tacloban
• Bicolandia
• Balangiga, Eastern Samar
• Verde Island
• Tubbataha, if possible

“Therefore I would ask you to write all kinds of books, hesitating at no subject however trivial or however vast. By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.” (Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own)

• 07.2016 - Banaue-Batad-Sagada-Baguio
• 06.2017 - Ho Chi Minh City
• 08.2017 - Bohol-Siquijor-Dumaguete
• 07.2018 - Silay-Guimaras-Iloilo-Bacolod
• 10.2018 - Singapore Sports Tour
• 06.2019 - Siargao-Surigao
• 09.2019 - Hyderabad
• 06.2021 - Berlin
• 07.2021 - Malta
• 03.2022 - Alibijaban Island, Quezon-San J...